Page 23 of Surge of Storms

“The type you are looking for,” Zane emphasizes, “are large, tall, strong humans who eat a lot and do not like to give promises they cannot keep.”

“O-of course,” Dr. Abigail says, giving a small smile.

Dr. Duncan, on the other hand, comes closer and clasps Granger’s shoulder. “You, son, make a very fine dragon, and having you here with us is much-needed good news.” Even though Dr. Duncan is several heads shorter than all of us, his words hold a lot of power. It’s nice to see Granger instantly relax.

“We’ll expect you for tests and scanning,” Dr. Abigail tells him, but then releases a slow breath. “But, first, we have to go over something important that happened this morning.”

“Something bad?” I say, although it’s not really a question. We all know it’s something bad.

She nods and clicks on the screen. There’s an image of the brown, green, and salmon dragons burning a city, sending people screaming and running. My stomach instantly flips. I can’t imagine how terrified humans are right now. Dragons are frightening creatures, and these dragons that seem to like to terrorize people for no reason are particularly frightening.

As the video continues playing, the green dragon attacks a man, throwing him up in the air as if to eat him… but then he begins to shift in mid-air. The dragons fall back as an orange dragon shifts out of the man and stands panting in the middle of the street.

“Malikay,” Zane whispers softly.

“They awakened him,” I say.

“This isn’t good.” Sam wraps her arms around herself.

Granger pulls her closer to him and holds her in his arms. “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter now. I’m here, and we’re not going to let anything happen to you.”

“Three of them were making my life hell before,” she says, trying, and failing, to hide how upset she is. “Four is going to be so much worse.”

“Look around you,” Granger tells her, and she does, even though she seems unsure of herself. “We’re here to keep you safe. You have four big, male, alpha dragons ready to destroy anything and everything to get to you. Trust us. We’ll take care of you.”

She gives a sharp nod, but her shoulders are bent.

“It has become even more important that I train all of you in the dragon way,” Zane says. “Especially Granger. We will all need to be at our best.”

Everybody murmurs in agreement. We’re not about to risk Sam’s life just because we’re not properly prepared to fight those bastards.

“I think it’s ready to test!”

I turn in my seat to see Dahlia holding a strange metal contraption that reminds me of the tool the Ghostbusters used to suck up ghosts. For some reason, I have no idea what I’m looking at. That thing doesn’t seem to have a place in our current situation.

“Did it stop thinking lizards were dragons?” Dr. Duncan asks.

Dahlia grins, sweeping her long, dark hair out of her face. “Yes. Every test has worked correctly. Now, we just need to actually start testing people and see if it’ll identify a dragon human if it comes across one.” She clasps her hands together. “I was annoyed by how many science classes I had to take for my Wildlife Management degree, but now they’re really coming in handy.”

Dr. Abigail smiles. “Would you be interested in taking a team out and testing it in public?”

“Would I?” Dahlia says, bouncing on her heel, then clears her throat. “I mean, of course, that would be lovely.”

“We’ll arrange for it,” Dr. Abigail tells her.

“I can’t believe you guys have created something like that in such a short period of time,” Sam praises them, smiling.

Dahlia’s gaze slides over all of us. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of. I might not be a dragon, but I’m sure as hell going to leave my mark on this world.”

Sam goes over to her, and they both start talking in loud, excited voices. I watch my mate, my woman, unable to get enough of her. Malikay and his pack is a problem, but if I have it my way I’m going to rip those dragons to shreds and make certain they can never frighten her again.

I just need to make sure I’m tough enough to do it first.

NINE

Samantha

After a day spent flyingwith the guys in dragon form, I’d come to the lab to help Dahlia. As busy as I am, the geek inside of me loved all the research on dragons, and she’d abandoned me for her bed, while I was still glued to the data. Apparently, Specter Inc. fully expected nearly one hundred dragons in total to awaken, including around twenty females, although they expected the females to awaken last based on previous lifetimes.

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